1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of software engineering and specifically in the field of internet application interfaces.
2. Prior Art
Advances in network based computing systems have spurred the development of graphical user interfaces specifically designed for accessing applications or exchanging data over a computer network. For example, internet browsers have been developed to access files and applications over the Internet. These browsers may display internet application interfaces designed to facilitate interaction with an internet application or internet application interfaces configured as web portals to content distributed throughout the World Wide Web.
Internet application interfaces often include interface elements distributed in a logical arrangement to maximize ease of navigation and delivery of content to a user. For example, some internet application interfaces include spatially separate regions. One region may include content, such as a news story or results of a query, requested by a user. Another region may include a small “pagelet” of content such as a stock ticker or other data.
In a typical example, a user requests information through a web portal such as a search engine. The request includes search terms and results in execution of a query. The query results are retrieved and included in a region of a new internet application interface presented to the user. Additional content is retrieved based on the search terms and is included in another region of the new internet application interface.
In another example, a user requests a news story. The news story is retrieved using a Universal Resource Locator (URL) and displayed in a region of an internet application interface. A list of additional news stories is retrieved and displayed in another region of the internet application interface. In some instances, the retrieval of additional news stories is based on the URL used to retrieve the original news story. For example, the retrieval of additional news stories may include using part of the URL as a search term.
In both of these examples, however, the content in the other region is based on the user's request. This limits the extent of the content in the other regions. Thus, there is a need for improved systems and methods of generating interfaces with multiple regions with an even greater range of related content.